BERYL BETHLEHEM. 



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mile from that town. Vast quantities of agricultural 

 produce are shipped from the ports of Berwick and 

 Eyemouth, and much is also sent to the weekly mar- 

 kets of Edinburgh? Dalkeith, Haddington, and Dun- 

 bar. Very few manufactures are established in this 

 county, the principal one which it supplies, beyond 

 domestic consumption, being that of paper. The 

 situation of Berwick, as a border county, caused it to 

 abound in strong castles and fortified places, traces 

 of which are to be found in almost every parish. 

 The population of the county, in 1831, was 34,048. 



BERYL, or EMERALD ; a well-known species in 

 mineralogy, sometimes massive in its structure, 

 though commonly found crystallized in regular, six- 

 sided prisms, often deeply striated longitudinally, and 

 terminated at one or both extremities by a rough, 

 imperfect plane, or, more rarely, by a very flat, six- 

 sided pyramid, of which the summit is replaced. Its 

 crystals are of various dimensions, being from half 

 an inch to upwards of a foot in length, and from a 

 quarter of an inch to ten inches in diameter. The 

 larger crystals, however, are inferior to the smaller, 

 in regard to those qualities for which this species is 

 esteemed. The lustre of the beryl is vitreous ; its 

 colour, green, passing into blue, yellow, and white. 

 The brightest of these colours is emerald green, 

 which, as it is rarely known to pass insensibly into 

 the paler hues, has been made the basis of a distinct 

 species in those specimens in which it occurs under 

 the name of emerald. This distinction of species is 

 not considered, at present, as well founded ; and the 

 beryl and emerald are looked upon as identical by 

 most mineralogists. It is translucent or transparent, 

 and its hardness enables it to scratch quartz. Its 

 specific gravity is from 2-6 to 2'7. It is composed of 

 silex, 68-35 ; alumine, 17-60 ; glucine, 13-13 ; 

 oxyde of iron, -72, with a trace of lime and oxyde of 

 chrome. The beryl is widely diffused. It belongs 

 to the primitive rocks, and is embedded in veins of 

 quartz and feldspar, which traverse granite and mica 

 slate. It is also found in great abundance in a com- 

 pact ferruginous clay in Daouria, and in fractured 

 crystals and rolled masses in secondary deposits, 

 where it is not supposed to have had its origin. 

 Some of the most remarkable localities of beryl are 

 in Siberia, at Cairngorura in Scotland, at Limoges 

 in France, and in Massachusetts, Maine, and New 

 Hampshire in the United States. The deep-green 

 variety, emerald, so much valued as a gem, comes 

 from Peru and Upper Egypt : a few fine crystals 

 have also been obtained from granite veins at Tops- 

 ham in Maine. 



BESANSON (in old German, Bisanz) ; Ion. 6 3' E. ; 

 lat. 47 14' N. ; forty-eight miles from Paris ; a large, 

 old, well-built city, much fortified by Louis XIV. ; 

 was transferred, by the peace of Nimeguen, with 

 Franche-Compte to France ; at present, is the chief 

 place of the sixth military division ; has 29,000 in- 

 habitants, and is situated in the department Doubs. 

 There is an archbishop in B., under whom are the 

 bishops of Autun, Metz, Nancy, Strasburg, and Dijon. 

 The academy of sciences at B. was established in 

 1752 : there is also here an academy of fine arts, a 

 school for artillery, one for watch-makers, containing 

 200 pupils, and a fine library, besides several mu- 

 seums, a botanical garden, an agricultural society, 

 &c. B. is a great manufacturing place. It was 

 called, in ancient times, Visontium, and was a for- 

 tified place as early as the time of Caesar, who drove 

 from hence the Sequani. Here also he conquered 

 Ariovistus. Several streets have still the old Roman 

 names. The ruins of a triumphal arch are yet to be 

 seen. The river Doubs divides the city into two 

 parts, the upper and lower. B. contains 3300 houses, 

 eight churches, eight hospitals, a citadel, &a The 



former university was changed, in 1801, into a 

 lyceum. It is the chief place of an arrotidissement, 

 which contains 93,211 inhabitants. 



BESSARABIA ; since the peace of Bucharest, in 1812, 

 between Turkey and Russia, a Russian province, be- 

 tween 45 and 48 N. lat., and 28 and 31 E. Ion. ; 

 containing about 8800 square miles (according to 

 some accounts, more than double this amount), with 

 3 15,000 inhabitants; situated on the Black sea, be- 

 tween the northern arm of the Danube, the Pruth, 

 and the Dniester. B. is a plain country, fertile in 

 grain, but is mostly used for the pasturage of sheep 

 and horses. Most of the inhabitants are VValachians, 

 Gipsies, and Tartars. The capital is Chotzym, a 

 fortress. Bender, Ismail, Ackerman, and Kilia Nova, 

 are also fortresses. Kischenau, the seat of a Greek 

 bishop, has a large nursery of trees. The population 

 has been much increased by colonists from Poland, 

 Germany, France, &c. These amount already to 

 8300, mostly Lutherans. A considerable number of 

 troops are kept in B. to protect the frontiers. Many 

 mechanics are thus drawn there to supply the wants 

 of the army. 



BETEL is the leaf of a climbing East Indian plant 

 (piper betel), which belongs to the same tribe as 

 pepper, and, in shape and appearance, is not much 

 unlike ivy, but is more tender, and full of juice. It 

 is insipid to the taste, and generally narcotic. There 

 is an almost incredible consumption of betel through- 

 out India, and other parts of the East. The inhabi- 

 tants chew it almost incessantly, and in such quantity 

 that their lips become quite red, and their teeth 

 black a colour greatly preferred by them to the 

 whiteness which the Europeans so much affect. They 

 carry it, in little white boxes, about their persons,, 

 and present it to each other, by way of compliment 

 and civility, in the same manner as Europeans do 

 snuff. This is done by the women as well as by the 

 men ; and it would be considered an offence, if those 

 to whom it is offered should refuse to accept of and 

 chew it. The leaves are sometimes used alone, but 

 much more commonly when covered with a kind of 

 lime made of sea-shell, and wrapped round slices of 

 the areca nut, the fruit of the areca palm, of the size 

 of a small egg, and resembling a nutmeg deprived of 

 its husk. 



BETHANIA, or BETHANY ; a village at the foot of 

 mount Olivet, on the west side, about two miles east 

 of Jerusalem, where Lazarus dwelt, and was raised 

 from the dead, and where the ascension of Christ is 

 related to have taken place. The house and grave 

 of Lazarus, and the house of Mary Magdalene, are 

 still shown to curious travelers. The name of B. 

 was sometimes extended to the whole tract from the 

 village itself to Bethphage. 



BETHESDA ; a pool in Judea, the name of which 

 signifies house of mercy. In the five halls or porticos 

 near it many patients lay waiting, according to the 

 account of John (ch. v.), for the moving of the waters, 

 to bathe in. According to the opinion of the Jews, 

 an angel descended, at a certain time, into the pool, 

 and troubled the water, and whoever first entered the 

 water, after this agitation, was cured. This pool 

 seems to have been composed of a red-coloured 

 mineral water, which received its healing power 

 from the red earth at the bottom. If the healing 

 fountain, after having been obstructed for a time, 

 began to bubble up anew, and the patient made use 

 of it before the motion ceased, it healed his disease. 

 To lie at the pool of Bethesda, is used proverbially, 

 in Germany, in speaking of the theological candidates 

 who are waiting for a benefice. 



BETHLEHEM; the birth-place of David and Christ; 

 a village, formerly a town, in Palestine, a part of 

 Syria, in the pachalic of Damascus, five miles from 



